News At-A-Glance
Brighton, Colorado
City News
Article by Cathie Johnson
The new year brings a new budget for the city. The City Manager, John Bramble, gives a summary of the 2008 Budget Year.
The City of Brighton has been the beneficiary of the positive Colorado economy over the past four years and is now in the position to see substantial retail and commercial growth over the next three years. Unfortunately, these two factors are overshadowed by the radical decline in residential growth revenues to the City that has impacted the 2007 Budget and is projected to last until at least early 2009, thus impacting the 2008 Budget. The City’s total proposed budget for 2008 is estimated to be $52,119,232 which essentially represents a 6% increased budget over the 2007 Revised Budget of $49,256,665.
The slowing of new development revenues will be substantially less than received in 2006 and 2007. New residential activity in 2006 totaled 432 units and it is anticipated that there will be about 200 new residential units constructed in 2007. The 2008 Proposed Budget has been developed on the assumption that an equivalent of 183 new residential units will be constructed. The Funds impacted directly with the reduction in residential construction are the General, Impact Fee and Water / Sewer / Drainage Funds.
Fortunately, Brighton has been the recipient of several new commercial businesses throughout the City that has partially helped to make up the building use tax downturn. Prairie Center Commercial alone could add an additional 350,000 to 400,000 square feet of new commercial businesses in 2008 that will help fuel the City’s sales tax revenues. This additional commercial square footage in Prairie Center will speed up the planning and construction of the new Senior/Adult Recreation Facility that is a part of the development agreement with the Prairie Center Metropolitan District. In addition to Prairie Center, the downtown initiative has helped open new commercial opportunities, including the re-opening of the Depot Restaurant. The downtown initiative also has an expectation that the Pavilions will have two new restaurants in 2008.
The priorities that were established in the formulation of the 2008 Proposed Budget were:
• Avoid full-time position lay offs.
• Assess all salary and benefit costs to minimize City service reductions.
• Hold 2007 authorized positions for hiring until the start of the third quarter of 2008. (PW Director, Assistant Planner, Building Inspector, Traffic Engineer, and Parks Maintenance Worker.)
• No new positions to be included in the budget.
• Evaluate position re-assignments to cover possible short falls in customer services.
• Evaluate organizational amendments that may allow for improved services and streamline the organizational structure.
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